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South Africa & the Media REGIONAL REPORT Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA CHRIS ROPER January 17, 2012 SOUTH AFRICA & THE MEDIA: www.kas.de/mediaafrica www.kas.de LOOKING BACK TO 2011, LOOKING AHEAD TO 2012 EXCLUSIVE – CHRIS ROPER ON MAJOR STORIES, DIGITAL LANDSCAPES, AND THE BATTLE FOR MEDIA FREEDOM There were many important stories in the deflected from reporting the news, to cam- South African media in 2011, but perhaps paigning to protect the right to continue do- the biggest story was the media itself. ing so. The beginning of 2012 sees the South Af- rican media, and by extension, the state The main assault on media freedom was the of democracy in South Africa, in a parlous National Assembly’s passing of the Protec- position that many see as boding ill for tion of State Information Bill, more popu- the future of the country. This state of af- larly referred to as the Secrecy Bill, in No- fairs informed the way the media worked, vember of 2011. First mooted in 2008 by and the types of stories that were pub- then Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils, lished. It also highlighted the growing im- the Bill was designed to replace an apart- portance of digital media. For citizens, as heid-era law governing the classification of a way to continue to make their voices state secrets. Kasrils intended to craft legis- heard, and to access information neces- lation to protect state secrets, but at the sary to a civil society intent on being the same time uphold the constitutional princi- watchdogs of good governance and con- pal of transparent governance. It included a stitutional values; and for the media, it ‘public interest’ provision, allowing whistle- drove home how vital digital platforms blowers to reveal information that was de- are, and will be in future, in the preserva- monstrably in the public interest, without tion of the freedom of the press. fear of legal reprisal. THE SECRECY BILL AND THE BAT- Crucially, the Bill eventually proposed by TLE FOR MEDIA FREEDOM government removed the public interest provision, and provided for penalties of up In 2011, the media came under sustained to 25 years incarceration for whistleblowers. attack from the government and the court It also gave any state organ the power to of public opinion. It also contrived to stab classify any document as secret, meaning itself in the back with a myopic, narcissistic that the potential for covering up corruption response to infringements on the freedom would be immense. of the press, both actual and imagined, as well as some unfortunate lapses in editorial THE SECRECY BILL: CIVIL SOCIETY rigor. Major pressure was put on media RESPONDS structures because of this combination of negative propaganda and legitimate criti- Understandably, there was much outrage at cism.The result was a publishing climate in the proposed Bill, from a range of interested which some news organisations were anec- parties. Besides media organisations like dotally considered to be practicing a form of the South African National Editors Forum, self-censorship, and where attention was detractors included luminaries from within 2 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. the ruling African National Congress party. tors Forum’s chairman, Mondli Makhanya, Shortly before his death in June of 2011, said “This incredible plan which was ap- SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA struggle hero Kader Asmal, a former gov- proved by the cabinet means the govern- CHRIS ROPER ernment Minister, urged Parliament to re- ment wishes to bribe newspapers to become think the Bill and asked South Africans to its propagandists, or even its mouthpieces, January 17, 2012 join him in rejecting the legislation. by publishing only the government’s view of news and affairs.” www.kas.de/mediaafrica www.kas.de In general, the media’s relationship with the All to no avail. The Bill was passed in Sep- political power players could be encapsu- tember of 2011, after what many saw as a lated by this example. There was much an- sham process of public consultation. For ex- tagonism, mainly although not exclusively ample, the Mail & Guardian reported that from the government’s side. Government “consultations were still going ahead the communications’ chief Jimmy Manyi, for ex- night before the Bill went to Parliament. In ample, was quoted as saying that the me- Mangaung, 100 residents turned up for the dia, and especially print media, is “hostile hearing but the ANC MP who was meant to towards government”. conduct the hearing failed to appear. In- stead, fliers about the Bill were handed out, The Mac Maharaj story, covered in detail a choir entertained the crowd and then food below, was another case study for the rela- was served.” tionship between the media and politi- cians.The presidential spokesperson actually AN ANTAGONISTIC RELATIONSHIP: went so far as to enlist the aid of the direc- GOVERNMENT AND THE MEDIA torate for priority crime investigation (known as the Hawks), to investigate the State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele Mail & Guardian newspaper’s possession of provided a representative example of the documents relating to his involvement in state’s propaganda attack on groups oppos- the Arms Deal corruption scandal. The De- ing the Bill. He claimed that groups against mocratic Alliance's spokesperson on police the Bill were "local proxies of foreign spies", matters, Dianne Kohler Barnard, com- causing Ronnie Kasrils, a previous Minister mented that "It would seem that Mac Maha- for Intelligence Services, to describe his raj is on his own mission and it is very sad statements as "disgraceful" and "inflamma- the police and Hawks are being used by tory", and to suggest that they would en- politicians to fight their own battles -- courage members of the intelligence ser- something that should never happen." vices to "adopt a mindset already noted for excessive secrecy, exaggerated fears and THE PASSING OF THE SECRECY paranoia". BILL South African media and especially print Also incensed by the passing of the Secrecy media (where most of the investigative Bill was Jay Naidoo, a former General Sec- journalism takes place) is heir to the self- retary of the Congress of South African same institutional ills as the media of Trade Unions, and a former member of the Europe and America. In an economic cli- ANC’s National Executive Council. He also mate where media houses are losing read- served as Minister of Post, Telecommunica- ers to digital media, and struggling to sub- tions, and Broadcasting, and in then- stitute declining print advertising revenue president Nelson Mandela’s office as Minis- with digital revenue, the margins are tight. ter Responsible for the Reconstruction and In light of this, many saw Government Development Program. spokesman Jimmy Manyi’s statement that the government, one of the biggest adver- Naidoo went so far as to draw a shocking tisers, would favour with advertising reve- comparison between the current govern- nue the media that reported positively on ment and the old apartheid government. government activity. The South African Edi- There can be few more insulting analogies, 3 Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e. V. especially coming from one of your own. On social networks. YouTube, the site that pos- a current affairs website, the Daily Maver- sibly does most to allow citizens to evade SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA ick, he posed the question: “Are we drifting the censorship and control of their govern- CHRIS ROPER back to an era of apartheid-style censor- ments, and to present to the world alterna- ship, with the new apparatchiks deciding tive information that would ordinarily be January 17, 2012 what our thoughts and debates should be?“ suppressed, is the fourth most popular web- site used by South Africans. Facebook is the www.kas.de/mediaafrica Another who compared the current govern- second most popular site, and Twitter www.kas.de ment to apartheid was Nobel Laureate comes in at number seven. Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In response to the government refusing a visa for the Dalai The most popular social network in South Lama to visit South Africa for Tutu’s birth- Africa is the homegrown MXit platform, with day celebrations, ostensibly because of around 10 million active users. The quasi- pressure from China, Tutu went one step social network that is Blackberry BBM, fa- further than Naidoo. He accused the ANC of mously used by those involved in the riots being "worse than the apartheid govern- cum social uprising in England in August of ment", and said “I am warning you, one day 2011, also showed strong growth in 2011, we will start praying for the defeat of the rivaled only by Twitter. Both those networks ANC." are mobile phone based, playing exactly to the strengths of the South African techno- In the same column on the Daily Maverick, logical landscape. Naidoo hinted at the measures that South Africans need to take, and will take, to According to a study by the reputable re- counter the erosion of our hard-won consti- search firm World Wide Worx,”39% of urban tutional rights. “Just as such tactics failed to South Africans and 27% of rural users are silence us in the past and spawned a grass- now browsing the Internet on their roots rebellion of alternative media, what phones.... This means that at least 6 million our current leaders should realise is that the South Africans now have Internet access on rise of the internet and the powerful tools of their phones.” According to Arthur Gold- social media make imposing a veil of se- stuck of World Wide Worx, mobile penetra- crecy in South Africa, or the world, impossi- tion in South Africa is at 112% (with pene- ble today.” tration defined as active SIM cards), and 80% of South Africans use cellphones.
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